Character Photo Shoot, August 1966
I have a quartet of Instamatic slide scans (not from Mr. X), from August of 1966. Something is going on in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle! BUT WHAT?
The Plaza is the center of Disneyland (figuratively), so it's not surprising to find some sort of hubbub going on. A whole lotta costumed characters are loitering nearby. Are they selling the World's Finest Chocolate? I wish! At this point it's not entirely clear what they're doing. All I know is that I'll bet they are up to something fishy. Like teenagers!
We can see Goofy, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, Goofy, one of the Little Pigs, Dopey, Pinocchio, Honest John, and a little gang of Winnie the Pooh characters including Eeyore, Pooh Bear, Rabbit (I guess?), Kanga, and an owl who may or may not be Owl! To the right of Goofy, in the distance... is that Ferdinand the Bull?? Also in the distance to the left is one of the silly reindeer, in spite of the fact that this photo was taken in August.
Oops, there are more Little Pigs, The BBW, and Flower the Skunk, along with the plume of Captain Hook's hat behind the BBW. Above the trashcan to the extreme right - I want to say that Mary Poppins is standing there, but it might just a guest. Ms. Poppins would still be a pretty big deal in the world of Disney in 1966, however.
Well hey! It's some sort of photo/film shoot. For a TV special? For a "Disney News" or "Vacationland" issue?
There's this famous postcard, which (according to the internet) is a result of a Fall 1965 photo shoot.
There's the cover of Disney News, Volume 1, No. 1, from Winter 1965-1966. Hard to tell if this was taken at the same time as the postcard photo, since the color is so different.
And then there is the famous 1966 RCA ad.
And a great photo of that ad as the photography was being set up.
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Extra! Extra! GDB friend Grant McCormick saw the prom photos from last weekend and sent along this snapshot of himself as he prepared to go to the sophomore prom in 1965. Before leaving to pick up his date, a photo was taken with his mom , who we've seen on GDB before. I did some color correction on the photo, which made it go very dark, you'd never know that Grant's mom is holding the family dog. But she is! Thanks for sharing, Grant!
24 comments:
Major-
What a treat to see the "you are there" shot from the RCA ad shoot-! No need for blue or green screen - or any CGI nonsense. Just grab a new, RCA 'Abbey' model color TV, (remove "the guts" - as was done on "a certain television show...") then line-up all 'the players' so it matches, and start shooting. What could be easier-?
Thank you, Grant for sharing that lovely image. And thanks, Mr. X and The Major.
"...you'd never know that Grant's mom is holding the family dog. But she is!"
Major, are you making fun of Grant??
Hey, Grant, that does NOT look like you. This was BLH (before long hair) apparently. Great photo! You DO NOT look like a dog. ;o)
Now, I'll take the time to look at the other photos...will be back later.
1) An interesting tableau of Characters. Most of them seem to be grouped together in their respective 'families': The 3 Pigs, the dogs (Goofy and Pluto), Pinocchio & company, Pooh & company, two red chickens on the left (not sure who they are). Somehow one of the goofy reindeer made it into the scene, too. I think the suit in the yellow suit might be the organizer of whatever this is. The 3 Pigs look like they smeared raspberry jam on their faces. I never noticed that before. I knew they had rosy cheeks but...
2) Oh dear. I see Major has enumerated most of the Characters that I named. But this is a different photo, so I'm in the clear.
3) Major, I can't tell if that's Ms. Poppins on the right. It could even be Mr. Poppins.
4) There are park guests standing back in the shadows on the left and right, observing the photo shoot.
In the Disney News photo, we can't see very much of the Mad Hatter but we get a real good look at the CM's eye-hole in the Hatter's hat.
My, that's a nice photo of Grant, his mom, and their disappearing dog. I guess this was after Mom hosted the Bathroom Of Tomorrow? Was she still with the Disney Co. in '65?
Nanook, haha. "RCA. With color so life-like, you can almost reach out and touch them!"
For all those who can't get enough Character photos, this was your day! Thanks, Major. And thanks to Grant for sharing.
What a great set of behind the scenes pics! My vote goes towards shooting the image that is on the postcard, or the RCA ad, or both! That probably is Ferdinand. I never noticed him in the postcard shot, until now. That must have been tricky to be in a costume with someone else! I see that little man with a turban is standing next to a camel which was obviously two people inside of one costume, as well.
I remember two years before I was in the Christmas parade ("Fantasy On Parade"), the guy who sat behind me in Geometry class, was "half" of a camel in DL's "Very Merry Christmas Parade." I don't remember if he mentioned any problems with being in the costume with another person, but he did say that guests yelled obscenities and threw popcorn boxes and other things at them. The camel had a little man (fake) riding on it's back, who was wearing a turban, and this was Christmas of 1979, which was the beginning of the Iran Hostage Crisis. I think he said that Disney removed the little man from atop the camel, at some point before the Christmas season was over. Some people, I tell ya!
I think the person behind the trash can is actually wearing a Main Street vehicle drivers outfit, and not a Mary Poppins costume.
Thanks for sharing this cool set with us, Major. And thank you Grant, for sharing your prom photo! Is that one of those tuxedo shirts that sort of has a stiff "chest plate" thingy? I don't know what those are called. Anyway, you look pretty snazzy!
Nanook, oh yeah....a "certain" television show! "Da da da da ta-dah!"
While Walt is wearing the same suit (or a close copy) in the postcard, RCA ad, and Disney News cover, I don't think they are all from the same shoot. The lighting is too different in the RCA ad, and I can't imagine that they would keep Walt out there from the long shadows of early morning to later in the day. Because the lighting in today's Instamatics matches the RCA shoot and the 1966 date makes more sense, my vote is that this was the RCA ad shoot.
Note the guy in the grey suit in the third photo. I'm wondering if he was Walt's stand-in for setting up the shoot (hence the nearly-identical suit) or if he was just a "suit" who was there on site for the shoot.
I love that photo of you and your mom, Grant! I wish I had had the sense to get a black tux for my first prom. My first (junior year) was white, my second (senior year) was an 18% grey, and my third (freshman in college asked back by a high school senior) was black. The third looked the best.
Thanks, Major, for an interesting historical documentation of a famous photo shoot in the making!
In those first couple of pictures it looks like the group was milling around after someone yelled "Look casual!" Do they look casual? Not really, but they're trying!
It looks like they're using a movie camera (complete with a swivel head tripod) so I'm betting film footage was involved. Other than that, I have no clue.
The RCA shoot must have been a little tricky, if only because of having to work out depth of field issues. Both the TV and the people past it had to be in sharp focus, even though they were several feet apart. A small aperture would need to be used, which would cut down on the light through the lens, of course. However, if you opened up the lens and snapped a regular shot, the lighting would be much brighter, like the Disney News cover. All of that to say that it's difficult to tell by lighting when a photo was taken.
Hi Grant! Lookin' sharp!
These are unusual for sure.
The Gang’s all here, and the Big Guy too. Loving everyone sorting out the characters.
The empty TV shot is wild, I can imagine the meeting where that was proposed. I love the way the Castle looks like a cyclorama background, pale pastels like a dream of a dream, as it should be, Once Upon a Dream.
Grant, thanks for that pic! Good to see you!
Thanks Major!
JG
Finally have some time for the rest of the pictures...
Love seeing all the colorful characters, AND Walt, too!
In the 2nd and 3rd images, Ferdinand is either getting ready to charge, or his back half may be resting on the built-in bench seating, I think. I can only imagine how much fun it would be to be in that position.
In images 5 and 6, The Dent also appears. It's especially prevalent on the Disney News cover. I love it!
Thanks, Major and Grant, for today's super-cool post. (It's also cool that Walt and Grant knew each other.)
Stu, I was also looking at the differences in the length of the shadows in the RCA ad as compared to the rest, but you make a good point about differences in aperture and shutter speed settings making the apparent lighting look different in two photos taken minutes (or seconds) apart in the same location.
Sue, I noticed the dent but totally forgot to mention it as I got into my dissertation. No stain or bloody-clawed swans, though.
...the guy who sat behind me in Geometry class, was "half" of a camel in DL's "Very Merry Christmas Parade."
It's always been my dream to play half of a horse. Preferably in tap shoes.
Even in a dark picture, Grant and his Mom look sharp.
Major, you were wondering if those characters were selling chocolates.
What if they were selling Cutco knives? Or magazine subscriptions?
Or maybe the "Families" are gonna rumble since the Pigs are on the Reindeers' turf?
JG
Nanook, I assume that the RCA photo was taken on one of the days that Disneyland was closed, but of course I could be wrong. They might have just used flamethrowers to keep the crowds back. The little girl who is with Walt in the ad grew up to be a fairly successful character actress (I forget her name) and she has posted some things on Facebook about her memories of that photo shoot (they were positive).
Lou and Sue, I would never make fun of Grant! The family’s black dog turned invisible when I color-corrected the photo.
JB, I think it’s just natural that the characters would form in those groups. It’s like the kids on the wrestling team would form a group, and the kids in band would form a group, etc. The reindeer makes me think that this photo was to be used for a Christmas ad (or card), it’s totally believable that they would already be planning for that in August. Looking again, I don’t think that’s Mary Poppins. Oh well. I think you’re right about Grant’s mom being done with her Disneyland gig by 1965. Glad you liked these!
TokyoMagic!, I just couldn’t tell which “official” photo matched, assuming that any of them did. It could have been for something entirely different. The way the colors differ (due to film stocks, fading, etc) makes it tougher. Sharing one costume with another person sounds like some kind of hell to me. Wow, guests yelled obscenities at the camels?? Unbelievable. People are dumb! That’s my official motto. It’s like people who wouldn’t eat french fries because they were mad at the French. So call them “freedom fries” instead! SO DUMB. I think you are right about the person behind that trashcan. A tuxedo with a “chest plate”? Was Grant wearing bullet-proof armor??
TokyoMagic!, you mean “Hazel”?
Chuck, Walt had a closet full of the exact same suit, just like Alfred (not Albert) Einstein. I could see a photo like this taking hours to set up. Walt could just walk in at the last minute, pose for maybe half an hour, and then get back to smoking. Interesting thought about that guy possibly being Walt’s stand-in. What if the tuxedo store only had tuxes that were 21% gray? You would have had to go to prom in your tuxedo t-shirt.
Stu29573, it’s like trying to look innocent when a cop is standing nearby. I’m not doing anything wrong, but suddenly I feel like a criminal. I wonder if that film footage is in the Archives? I’ll just pop on over and take a look (eating a greasy hamburger the whole time). Good point about the depth of field on the RCA photo, I assume that using fancy large-format cameras might have helped with the smaller aperture, though I know too little about the fine points of photography. Sounds like you know a lot!
JG, when I first saw these, I thought, “Hmm, kind of boring photos with some characters”. So scanning them and being able to see the details was a nice surprise! “Now Walt, we’ll have an RCA console TV with the guts removed. You’ll pose behind it while reading a fairy tale to an adorable child. Oh, and also you will be wearing all leather”. There was some discussion!
Lou and Sue, I don’t know, Ferdinand looks pretty shy to me. Hanging back there away from the others. The funny thing is that Ferdinand was black (with a white muzzle) in the classic short movie, so I’m not sure why they made him a reddish brown here. Ha ha, you always notice the dent! Even in “Soaring Around the World”!! I’m sure Grant and Walt spent many hours together sipping cocktails and reminiscing about the good old days.
Chuck, as I said to Stu, I’m sure the photo shoot took hours to set up, so the change in the time of day isn’t that unusual in my opinion. I’m still not sure about whether my photos match any of the published examples, but I was still happy to find these!
Melissa, hey, I have a dream of having 20 million dollars! Then I can wear tap shoes everywhere I go, and even dress as half of a horse.
JG, oh man. I have a cousin who’s daughter called me to sell me Cutco knives. She wanted me to buy sets of cutlery that cost $1,500. I bought one chef’s knife. I’ve never used it, but it does look like a pretty nice knife!
@ Stu29573-
It's pretty hard to tell, but that movie camera is very-likely an Arriflex 16BL - although, there's no blimp; so either they're shooting MOS, or the noise isn't an issue - they hope. A little more detail would be helpful.
Major-
"... Oh, and also you will be wearing all leather”.
Not to worry - it was 'special order', "ventilated leather". One entire side of my closet is devoted to this luxury fabric... I even have a ventilated leather tuxedo - with a 'ventilated' cummerbund-! (Don't knock it 'til you try it).
Major, I had both Boy Scouts and Sunday School kids trying to sell us Cutco knives. We bought the smallest possible set from our daughter's friend. They are pretty good knives, but hoo-boy $$. She told us years later that we were her only sale.
All the Scout leaders had some since every year there were troop kids selling them. I think it was a school fundraiser, but seriously overpriced and demoralizing to sell since almost no one wanted to spend that kind of money on a kid's fundraiser. It's not like selling candy, popcorn or wrapping paper where $20 goes a long way.
JG
Major, I'm pretty sure that your photos are from the set-up for the RCA shoot. Aside from the morning shadows in both, the banner at the southeast end of the drawbridge walkway visible in the second photo is the same banner visible in the "official” behind the scenes RCA shoot shot. You can also tell the Disney News shoot was on a different day from the RCA shoot because the drawbridge banners are different on the west side of the bridge. But I cannot definitively say that the RCA shoot and the postcard were shot at different times as we don’t know how long the film stayed in the camera, although it does seem odd to shoot a product-placement ad in fall 1965 and hold it until fall 1966.
JG, I was asked to sell chocolate as a fundraiser for the school orchestra when I was in 4th grade. About the fifth house I hit on my street, the woman who answered the door chewed me out, saying she paid her taxes and it wasn’t fair to ask her for more. I was nine years old. That turned me off of sales forever.
Looking good Grant! Now back to work for me. I'm still a working stiff. Best to all. KS
Such cool pix of the photo shoot. At first I thought the Park was closed because only characters and staff were visible. But in the fourth pic you can see people watching from behind a rope. It must be a rare to have all the Disney characters in one place. Neat Stuff.
Thanks everyone for the kind comments about the pic with me and my mom.
Nanook, thanks! Glad you liked the pic.
Sue, that photo was definitely BLH by about three years. There was a huge difference between 1965 and 1968. I never looked like that again. :)
JB, yes, this was after mom managed the Bath of Tomorrow. When the attraction closed in 1960 she left Disneyland to be a stay-at-home mom. Fortunately she had a box full of complimentary admission passes that me and my friends used for the next several years.
TM, it was the first time I wore a tuxedo. The chest part of the shirt was really stiff and very uncomfortable. Not exactly great for doing the teen dances of the day. It did make me look pretty "snazzy". Quite a feat for a nerdy, geeky kid.
Chuck, I remember going to the tux shop with my dad and really wanting a white one with a bow tie. Dad, who was very fashion conscious, talked me into a black one with the latest, hip tie. Definitely the right decision.
Stu, thanks! Actually it's not that I'm sharp, it's just that my head comes to a point. LOL
JG, thanks buddy. I was looking as some of your pics just yesterday. Nice to see you too!
Sue, well, I can't say that I actually KNEW Walt well. But he did know who I was through mom and I was lucky enough to meet and talk to him. Pretty special moments.
Melissa, thanks! I was lucky to have such a cool, pretty mom.
Major, I know you weren't making fun of me. The dog was much more visible in my old sepia saturated photo. You made it look so much better.
KS, thanks! Enjoy working... says a smug retired guy!
Thanks for the awesome photos today....I enjoyed these a lot. It does make complete sense for Walt to have a lighting stand in. Even a nobody like me had stand-ins. Lighting takes for-e-ver. Most important people on the set...besides the drivers. The face characters all have their arms crossed just so. Also they all have the same bored expressions. Guess they didn't get their lighting doubles. Castle is lovely, and the guest lurkers...."these are not the droids you are looking for". Not sure what they are looking at. Bored face characters I think. Don't you guys have RIDES to go on? I love the zany reindeer, and there are also such great random characters in here. Ferdinand? Really? Love the dog, the perfect mom, and a clean cut NASA guy any day. The bathroom of tomorrow I would like is a self cleaning one. Just push a button. I'm waiting for the toilet-of-the-future, and wonder what it will be? Very exciting stuff! Thanks again Major!
Nanook, I’m having a very hard time picturing Walt in “ventilated leather”!! Maybe there was a chapter about it in “Hollywood’s Dark Prince”.
JG, yeah, I was warned that my cousin’s daughter was going to call, and she was so sweet. That’s how they get you! Even so, I could not drop over a thousand dollars on knives. Maybe if I was more of a chef. Thinking about it now, maybe I’ll give my Cutco knife to my sister, who could actually get some use out of it.
Chuck, you make a convincing case for the RCA shoot! I know that date stamps on slides are only a general indicator of when the photos were taken, and my mom would sometimes have a roll of film in her camera for weeks if not months. Yikes, why would that woman grouse to a nine year old boy?? What a goblin!
KS, hopefully you love your work!
Grant, I forget if you ever saw Walt at the park, but I can imagine how exciting it would have been for a guest to see the man himself posing for a picture - with all of the characters too! And I’m not sure I made your photo look better. It is less red/sepia, but it went so dark. Too dark really!
Bu, you’re not a nobody! You’re BU! I wonder why lighting takes so long? Do they try lots of setups until they find the one they like best? Imagine standing around for HOURS while they figure it out. Snore. As for the guests not going on rides, that’s what I think when I hear about people waiting in line for three hours to have a photo taken with Tom Morrow (or whever). Life’s too short, man! No offense to Mr. Morrow. I saw Michio Kaku give a talk, and he said that smart toilets would be able to tell us if we were diabetic… and other stuff, though that’s the only one I remember.
It's always been my dream to play half of a horse.
Melissa, hopefully...the front end! Like Major said, I think sharing a costume with someone would be some kind of hell.....especially if you were the back end.
And that reminds me (Nanook and Sue), of an episode of a certain show, where a certain best friend was going to reluctantly be the "back end" of a horse.....until her husband entered the room while she was inside the costume and said two words, with perfect timing and delivery....."Hi, Ethel!"
And now I'm remembering that there were four "elephants" from The Jungle Book, when I was in the Christmas parade. Those costumes also required two people. The person in the back was completely blind to what was going on in front of them, but at least they were able to stand completely erect, rather than have to be "hunched over" the whole time:
The Jungle Book elephants - Fantasy On Parade 1981
Mrs. Chuck used to do television lighting and absolutely hated it. "It took forever and I wasn't very good at it." But the results, when done right, make the scene look so natural that most people don't even realize that anything special had to be done.
A former colleague from my Combat Camera days told me a story about a production shoot she was on once where they were shooting in a large airplane hangar. It took most of a morning to get the lighting right.
Their local liaison, a pilot, was really irritated that it had taken them so long. "Four hours to light this? I could have shot this with my home VHS camcorder and it would have looked exactly the same!" No, sir, it wouldn't.
But that attitude came with the territory. Airplanes are expensive, so most people aren't pilots, and they are respected for their particular expertise. But everybody has a camera, and that leads to an unconscious - and sometimes conscious - denigration of those who work with cameras professionally. "I could do what you do!" You have no idea how tempted I was at times to just hand somebody a camera and walk away. "Go for it. The General needs an edited product by 1700. Let me know how it goes."
@ Chuck-
As with so many things in life... "Ten cents to turn the screw; $10,000.00 to know which screw to turn".
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